Even Now, Ruth Marcus Cannot Come Clean (Washington Post Death Spiral Watch)
Ruth Marcus admits that she has been lying to her readers for years and years:
True Whoppers: [M]y expressed desire to hold both campaigns accountable for their lapses from good policy and honest argument.... [I]t is a phony evenhandedness, comfortable for journalists but ultimately misleading, that equates these failures without measuring the grossness of their deviation from the standard of decency. In the 2008 race, and especially in the past few weeks, the imbalance has become unnervingly stark. Ideological differences aside, John McCain's campaign has been more dishonest, more unfair, more -- to use a word that resonates with McCain -- dishonorable than Barack Obama's.... McCain's... whoppers are bigger; there are more of them. He -- the easy out would be to say "his campaign" -- has been misleading, and at times has outright lied, about his opponent. He has misrepresented -- that's the charitable verb -- his vice presidential nominee's record. Called on these fouls, he has denied and repeated them....
[T]he McCain campaign has its story about Sarah Palin, and it's sticking with it -- facts be damned. She said "thanks but no thanks" to that "Bridge to Nowhere," except that she didn't: She backed the bridge until it was unpopular, then scooped up the money and used it for other projects. More than a year after McCain began railing against the bridge, Palin, then a gubernatorial candidate, said the state should build it "now -- while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."
Palin sold the gubernatorial jet, on eBay and for a profit -- except that she didn't. She didn't take earmarks as governor -- except for the $256 million she sought last year, and the $197 million wish list for 2008....
Sitting on the couch with the women of "The View" last week, McCain offered a litany of excuses for his conduct this time around: Obama's ads are hard-hitting, too. The tone wouldn't be so negative if Obama had agreed to more debates. McCain's own lipstick comment was different because he was referring to health care.
You had to wonder: Are there any corners left for McCain? Is there any reason to trust that a man running this campaign would go on to be an honest president?
But she still cannot come clean. The imbalance has not become "unnervingly stark" in the last few weeks. The imbalance has been unnervingly stark for a long, long time--and Ruth Marcus has kept her eyes firmly closed for that long long time.
Does she seriously expect us to be stupid enough to believe that Steve Schmidt and John McCain are any bigger liars than Karl Rove and George W. Bush, or than Lee Atwater and Ronald Reagan?
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
